For the first time in human history, NHS doctors have successfully transplanted resuscitated hearts into infant patients, using a technique that can revolutionize healthcare.
Surgeons at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire revived still hearts and used them successfully in several pioneering transplant operations, employing a boxed heart machine designed to reproduce conditions within the human body.
To date, a total of six patients, aged between 12 and 16 years, have benefited from surgery that transplants a previously stopped heart in an infant patient.
Anna Hadley, now 16, was the first patient to receive a heart transplant using the latest technique.
The story of a child heart transplant for the first time in the world, delivered by the NHS during a global pandemic, which saved the lives of six children since February 2020, including Anna, 16, and Freya, 14. A collaboration between us, @GreatOrmondSt and @NHSBT. Topic 1/10 pic.twitter.com/mqSzi9zT6C
– Royal Papworth Hospital NHS FT 💙 (@RoyalPapworth) February 21, 2021
“I feel normal again. There is nothing I cannot do now, ” she said, explaining that she can now play hockey again since she received her new heart.
The heart-in-a-box machine, called the Organ Care System, keeps the vital organ warm and pumps 1.5 liters of donor blood through it, while infusing it with additional nutrients and keeping it beating using a defibrillation pulse. Notably, doctors can also regulate heart rate remotely, if necessary.
The technique results in faster recovery, dramatically reduces waiting times by releasing potential donor hearts and can save thousands of lives in the process. On average, children have to wait two and a half times longer than adults due to specific transplant requirements.
“This means that people can donate their hearts where it would not have been possible in the past, giving life to patients on the waiting list.” says Dr. John Forsythe, medical director for organ donation and transplantation at the NHS Blood and Transplant.
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